Find Your Project's Business Case And Compelling Story

Does your most important project include a financial business case AND a compelling story?

I've noticed that project leaders tend to forget one or the other. You need both. Why? Because half of the world is laser-sharp focused on the financials while the other half cares about the financials but needs a compelling story.

A compelling story is the cool reason why you are doing a project. It's the people side. It's the part that when the project is finished makes you and your constituents feel warm and fuzzy.

Maybe you're not a warm-and-fuzzy kind of person. I'm not. But, I've learned that the chances of sustaining support and achieving the project goals improves dramatically when the project includes both a business case and a compelling story.

The business case shows the financial impact of your project on the organization. It shows how will your project improve your results in any of these areas:

Revenue
Expenses
Customer Happiness
Team Member Happiness
Compliance
Social Responsibility

The business case is there - as the project leader you must articulate it. As long as your project is supporting and improving one of those six big financial impact areas you should have all the support that you need. The minute it doesn't, though the support can drain away.

The compelling story creates the excitement, the verve, the coolness that you need to get past the finish line. Oh yes, and it makes you a hero. Wouldn't that be nice?

Every project requiring cooperation needs a business case and a compelling, emotional story.

What's your story?

-- Doug Smith

Comments

Plan to Celebrate

I am not good at celebrating, and yet celebrating is motivational. Because of that, I need to PLAN to celebrate or it will pass me right by. That also means that in order to see the plan to celebrate thru, there must be something worth celebrating, which means doing the work to achieve the goal. Your goal is easier to achieve when you make energizing progress and then celebrate it. It's not either or -- it's both and: progress (doing the work) and celebration (rewarding yourself and others for that success.) What do you think? -- doug smith

Maybe Start With A Smile...

How do you react when you meet someone new? They're not new to the world, of course, just to you but that's new enough, isn't it? What if they disagree with you? What if you're on different sides of an issue? What if you don't know? People desire respect. When respect is lacking, we know it right away, don't we? And when we withhold our own respect it stands to reason that others know that right away, too. But if we start with respect -- if we start with the idea that every person we meet has value -- it becomes easier to interact meaningfully and maybe even share common ground. When we connect with respect we dramatically increase our chances of communicating effectively. I'll do my best to practice that today -- how about you? -- doug smith

Team Talk

The most powerful team building tool is talk. Talk with each team member and talk together as a team. Communication is the most powerful skill to practice. -- doug smith

Start With Calm

It's amazing how many problems stop being problems once we are centered and calm. -- doug smith

What Secret?

How secret is that secret? Secrets are told when people think that no one is listening. Some one is always listening. That's how secrets get out. -- doug smith

You're the Leader

What's next? Everyday there is some new challenge and everyday there are multiple ways to handle each challenge. People are waiting for answers without even understanding the questions. Where does that leave you? The best we can ever do is to make things better. Start with one thing at a time and grow. I don't do nearly enough of this, but I'm willing to ramp it up. How about you? Lead the way to something better and people will follow you. -- doug smith Call to Action: Make a list (a very short list!) of problems you'd like solved or projects you'd like to do. Prioritize the list. Start working on number one. Do something.

Questions for Hitting Your Goal

If you usually hit your goal you'll usually hit your goal. To do that, to usually hit your goal, get into the habit of hitting your goal. Questions to ask to prepare yourself for achieving your goal include: Do you know why you want to achieve your goal? Do you have everything you need to achieve your goal? How committed are you to achieving your goal? Who do you need help from in order to achieve your goal? What might get in the way of achieving your goal? How will you break your goal down into smaller pieces? How will you measure your progress and results? What will it give you to achieve your goal? We're all so busy. It that goal isn't important enough to answer those questions clearly then maybe it's not important enough to achieve. Pause, breathe, ask, then act. -- doug smith

Convince Yourself

How important is that goal, really? How deeply do you believe in the importance of that goal? It's easy, but silly, for us to fool ourselves. Either the goal REALLY matters or it does not. Design a plan to achieve your goal that is so persuasive you won't be tempted to ignore it. Then do it. Act relentlessly on your plan. -- doug smith

Make It a Goal

Take your problems seriously, then take them away. Find out what it is about the problem that is standing in your way. What is it that you really want? What is your goal? Once you convert your problem statement to a goal you've opened the door to a thousand new possibilities. Your answer is in there. -- doug smith

Enjoy AND Improve

Do you enjoy success? If that seems like a silly question (Of COURSE I enjoy success!) think about it from another perspective. Sometimes we can taper down our enjoyment and appreciation of something because we know it's not perfect yet, and how can we be happy if it's not perfect? I do that somethings. It's not helpful. OF COURSE it's not perfect: nothing else and nothing ever will be. There are no perfect people, processes, performances, or plan. If we wait for perfection, we'll just keep waiting (and probably without gaining ground...) Let's do both. Let's enjoy our current level of success and achievement while also working to improve it. Performance must constantly improve, AND we can enjoy our exiting improvements. -- doug smith

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